I received an email from Virgin America stating, "...the good news is [Elevate Members] will be able to use their Elevate Points in time for free travel on Virgin America by early October. According to a g/a last night at SFO, the redemption amounts will be released in a couple weeks, and points will be able to be used toward free travel, first class upgrades, onboard food and beverage as well as premium tv services. I am hoping they don't forget to include the Virgin Atlantic lounge at SFO.

In addition, Virgin America Elevate members will soon have a new way to earn points...the Virgin America Visa Card. New partners Banana Republic and Kimpton Hotel/Restaurants will offer discounts and promotional bonus points on purchases made with the VX Visa.

Also VX flyers, look in the seatback for the Banana Republic publication, in the back of it is a coupon code for 20% your next Virgin America flight.

And keep your eyes peeled from N628VA, now entourage air:

On September 7, an all-new season of Entourage premieres on HBO. To celebrate, HBO and Virgin America welcome you aboard "Entourage Air". During the month of September, book your travel between NYC (JFK) and Las Vegas on Entourage Air and enjoy free episodes of Entourage on RED fleetwide on Virgin America. First class guests on Entourage Air will experience "Entourage Class". Fly like Vince and the boys with your very own pair of Bose noise-canceling headphones, a glass of signature champagne, Godiva truffles, Kiehl's Since 1851 Perennial Favorites Travel Set, Altoids and a signature Entourage Air blanket and eye mask.

Hey M. Time is getting a bit short for a T-day start-up; both SAN and SEA service announcements were made by Virgin about 3 months and a week prior to flight-inauguration. Of course they might not hold to that time frame but if they do, a pre-Christmas start date is possible IF the announcement is made soon.

I see they still have the Station Mgr and Sprvsr positions for ORD listed on the Careers page but that doesn't mean they aren't filled already. No other new city postings are listed yet; however, it looks like they are again trying to hire a LAS Station Mgr.

Well VX is getting close to moving into its new T-3 digs at LAX after the facility gets a 30 day 'virginized' remodel which will give VX 6 gates of its own (up from current 2)

From what I understand they have promised the city quite a bit of growth, including opening a LAX crew base. I suspect some sort of expansion could be announcement in conjunction with the terminal move.

Quoting LAXintl (Reply 6):...will give VX 6 gates of its own (up from current 2.)

Wow. BTW, how many gates does VX have at SFO?

The expansion at LA is certainly not surprising since, with the exception of LAS and SAN service from SFO only, service to JFK, IAD and SEA is fairly equal from both SF and LA; I'm sure ORD service will be pretty much the same situation. (I wouldn't be surprised that once they have the gate space at LAX, Virgin will start flying to LAS from there as well.)

I keep hearing VX is on the ropes and may not be around by Thanksgiving - not in their current form, anyway.

Per a friend of mine whose girlfriend works there, they've stopped all hiring and have already told flight attendants to expect furloughs.

Interesting indeed. Especially since i've been hearing quite the opposite, and that is that they have been doing fairly well, given the industry climate. They have positions posted on their website, which indicates that they are still hiring, although not as aggresively as they were before. And as far as furloughs go, a friend of a friend who works there told me that this is currently not on the books.

The passengers who fly on it love this airline (myself included), and I don't think it is about to go under anytime soon.

Quoting LAXintl (Reply 5):Well VX is getting close to moving into its new T-3 digs at LAX after the facility gets a 30 day 'virginized' remodel which will give VX 6 gates of its own (up from current 2)

Isn't T3 where AS is doing their hub thing as well? I guess that means that AS won't any more gate space.

Although, it's good to see an airline doing some expansion through LAX.

I keep hearing VX is on the ropes and may not be around by Thanksgiving - not in their current form, anyway.

Per a friend of mine whose girlfriend works there, they've stopped all hiring and have already told flight attendants to expect furloughs.

Typical "I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who overheard someone say..." statement. In case you haven't noticed, ALL airlines sans WN are hurting, but VX seems to be carving a niche for itself. They are growing slowly, which is smart. I had the opportunity to fly them once, and they beat anything ANY U.S. based carrier puts in the sky, so I think they will catch on.

Quoting SAN787 (Reply 2):Have not heard what will be after that...BOS? MIA? DEN? ATL?

I definitely wouldn't mind them coming to ATL, as I've been wanting to try them out but that would involve having to fly DL or FL to another city in order to get to fly them and that really would be a roll of the dice, especially if the flight from ATL to the city where I was catching the VX flight out of were to be canceled. Why take the risk? With FL doing some cutbacks at ATL and NK down to a few ATL-FLL flights a day, there may be some opportunities to grab some unused gate space to come in and offer a few flights a day to SFO, LAS, and LAX and do some cherry picking of FL and DL customers. Throw in the possibilities of what could happen to NW's gates post-merger and there definitely could be gate space for them to launch service.

A quick check to Virgin America's career website would quickly prove that to be false.

Having jobs posted on the website doesn't indicate they are hiring for those jobs. They'd had several of them posted for many months now.

On that note, isn't it kind of pathetic that they are STILL offering $139 transcon fares even a year after they've been in existence? That doesn't even cover the cost of fuel anymore let alone their other costs.

That they are STILL hiding behind the DOT to block any public access to information they have from all other carriers doesn't exactly scream confidence either.

Quoting FreequentFlier (Reply 18):On that note, isn't it kind of pathetic that they are STILL offering $139 transcon fares even a year after they've been in existence? That doesn't even cover the cost of fuel anymore let alone their other costs.

And NK still offers $ 9 fares from FLL to many cities; isn't that pathetic too.

Quoting SAN787 (Thread starter):On September 7, an all-new season of Entourage premieres on HBO. To celebrate, HBO and Virgin America welcome you aboard "Entourage Air". During the month of September, book your travel between NYC (JFK) and Las Vegas on Entourage Air and enjoy free episodes of Entourage on RED fleetwide on Virgin America. First class guests on Entourage Air will experience "Entourage Class".

Do you know if that plane will be featured in an episode of "Entourage," or if this is just a purely marketing scheme?